Khulna General Hospital’s six buildings are still in derelict condition since the Public Works Department declared those structures ‘vulnerable’ more than a year ago.
Hospital doctors, employees and patients fear roof collapse as plasters on the walls are cracked and flaking.
The 150-bed hospital, the oldest government healthcare centre in the city of Khulna, was established in 1935 on three acres of land and now has a total of 19 buildings.
The PWD warned of two-storey female ward, two-storey medicine storeroom, management and information system building, residential medical officer’s office, Sadar Urban Dispensary and an employees’ quarter, but no effective steps had been taken, confirm hospital officials.
The officials also say that the medicine supply building, ward master and store keeper’s quarter and welfare building have also become risky.
Minor accidents often occur in these tumbledown buildings, to add insult to injury, rain water drips down the walls, the officials complain.
On last Wednesday at about 2:00pm, an on-duty employee of medicine supply department, Tapati Biswas, injured when a small chunk of derelict roof suddenly fell in.
She had to undergo treatment at the hospital for several days, they have said.
Patients complain that most of the windows and doors of those buildings have remained broken for long as if the hospital does not conduct any renovation.
A hospital employee, seeking anonymity, has told New Age, ‘We are performing duties amid fear of build collapse.’
He has also said that they repeatedly asked the authorities concerned to take urgent steps to renovate the buildings, but the administration always remained indifferent.
Admitting the hospital building’s dilapidated condition, hospital superintend Mohammad Golam Mortoza Shikdar, also Khulna civil surgeon, has told New Age that they send a letter of application to the health ministry last week seeking necessary steps in this regard.